Mesa Madness

Well, the dining room table problem is on its way to being solved. We will not, of course, be able to buy a new dining table.

Instead, we are going to get a very small table to put against the wall, and put everything that is on the bar that runs almost the length of the kitchen on said table.

My father has bar stools that are no longer really ever used. He moved them from the old house because they were there, and because the new house has a bar, and it seemed the thing to do at the time. However, they no longer entertain scads of people, and the bar stools just sit, unused. We will put them to good use.

This will free up a good part of the dining area to be a dedicated kitten area, where i won't be stepping over and around and occasionally, totally by accident, on the kittens. Yes, i do the kitten shuffle, and only ever catch a toe or a bit of tail, but it still hurts them and me. As for the others in the house, well, again, we have all accidentally done it, and having the kittens out of the main kitchen will help prevent it.

Now to save up for a nice aluminum table that will hold up under a microwave, some cast iron, and the fruit bowls that we leave out all the time. All of those now live on the bar. Also to find some kind of play pen type fencing to keep kittens over there when they are very tiny.

We also need a light over the bar. I will look into some kind of wall mount enclosed light kit that doesn't require being wired into the house.

The main light in the room now is a chandelier that Sweetie, who is 6'2", keeps knocking into, as it is no longer hanging over the middle of a table. We will have to either replace (expensive) or pull the chain up and leave it at that (my favorite idea, as it is cheap).




Today is:

Apple Howling Day -- Henfield, West Sussex (Held at Gill Orchard, horn blowing and howling at the trees is said to wake them up and yield a good crop.)

Epiphany Fair -- Italy

Fair Deal Day

Get on the Computer Day (Obviously dates back to a time when people didn't have to check email daily or get inundated.)

National Bird Day

National Whipped Cream Day

Night of the Magic Camel -- Syria

Nones of January -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Take the Cake Day (Do something, anything, over the top.)

Turn Up the Heat Day

Twelfth Day of Christmas -- and thus, Twelfth Night (Although by some reckonings, this is actually only the 11th day of Christmas, and thus Twelfth Night Eve. Take your pick.)


Anniversaries Today:

George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis, 1759


Birthdays Today:

Pamela Sue Martin, 1953
Diane Keaton, 1946
Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, 1938
Alvin Ailey, 1931
Robert Duvall, 1931
Walter Mondale, 1928
George Reeves, 1914
George Dolenz, 1908
King Camp Gillette, 1855
Constanze Mozart, 1762 (wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Pietro Filippo Scarlotti, 1679
Shah Jahal, 1592 (Mughal emperor of India, built the Taj Mahal)


Today in History:

Edward the Confessor dies with no heir, leading to a succession crisis that ends with the Norman Conquest, 1066
Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, is executed by drowning, 1527
Pope Clemens VII forbids English king Henry VIII to re-marry, 1531
A petition in Recife, Brazil leads to closing of their 2 synagogues, 1638
The first Swedenborgian temple in the US holds its first service, in Baltimore, 1800
The Ohio legislature passes the first laws restricting the movement of free blacks, 1804
Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the Alamo, 1836
The US House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the UK, 1846
The first US school of librarianship opens at Columbia University, 1887
An Austrian newspaper makes the first public report on Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of xrays, 1896
The National Association of Audubon Society incorporates, 1905
Colombia recognizes Panama's independence, 1909
The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor, 1914
British premier Lloyd George issues a demand for a unified peace, 1918
Nellie Taylor Ross is sworn in as governor of Wyoming, the first woman governor of a US state, 1925
Mao Tse-tung writes "A Single Spark Can Start A Prairie Fire," 1930
FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time, 1940
The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper, 1944
Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59°F (+15°C) recorded at Vanda Station, 1974
Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered, 2005